


homin | strawberry ice cream & national geographic

by plincess_cho (ai_hao)



Series: Domestic Life | Yunho x Changmin [1]
Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ
Genre: Author: Ai, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-21
Updated: 2016-01-21
Packaged: 2018-05-15 09:56:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5781469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ai_hao/pseuds/plincess_cho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Changmin and Yunho spend a weekend together while on holiday during enlistment.</p>
            </blockquote>





	homin | strawberry ice cream & national geographic

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LadyGagarin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyGagarin/gifts).



> Inspired by / thanks to @shimschangmin and @teruknow

Changmin is full and slightly drunk. A bottle of wine sits on the coffee table next to a half-empty wine glass. Changmin has always been a pessimist, after all.

Yunho sits next to him on the couch, nursing a beer that's half full. He's smiling at whatever's happening on the screen. Yunho's always been an optimist.

They're halfway through some nature show that Yunho picked. Changmin had voted for a spy film that was halfway finished when they were deciding what to watch, but somehow he got vetoed in favor of a National Geographic special on ocean life. Changmin can't help but think Yunho reminds him of a cat the way he watches the fish on the screen.

Changmin's not really watching the show. He alternates between ogling the amazing picture quality of the television and pretending not to look at Yunho.

"Are you actually drinking your beer or are you just pretending?" Changmin asks.

Yunho keeps his eyes fixed on the sea turtles on the screen. "I'm savoring it," he replies.

Changmin just rolls his eyes and refills his wine glass.

The rest of his platoon mates are spending the weekend with their wives, girlfriends, or video games, and Changmin almost can't believe he's spending the weekend with his bandmate. He'd spent his last holiday getting completely shitfaced with Kyuhyun but now he's enlisted too.

So instead, here he is with Yunho in the apartment they'd rented for the weekend watching fucking nature television. 

Yunho gives up on his beer and gets up from the couch. "Do you want some ice cream?" he asks.

"Did you get a flavor besides strawberry?" Changmin replies.

"Nope," Yunho replies. 

Changmin turns back to the television and wonders if he can change the channel without Yunho noticing. He hears the clatter of bowls and the sound of the freezer door opening. A moment later, Yunho returns holding a bowl with a miniature mountain of pink ice cream topped with marshmallows and syrup. He tosses a protein bar in Changmin's lap. "Enjoy." Yunho settles onto the couch and sets the bowl on his lap, forgetting that he, in true Yunho-fashion, isn't wearing pants. He yelps and pulls a pillow into his lap to use as a tray table instead. 

Changmin has to restrain himself from grousing about the pillows, but then he remembers they're rented and he cares somewhat less.

National Geographic has moved on to polar bears and seals in the Arctic, and Changmin has moved on to another glass of wine. He feels so... normal, and that feels weird.

Their weekend so far has consisted of Changmin cooking after it was clear that Yunho didn't learn in the army, Changmin complaining about Yunho wearing his shoes in the house, and this: sitting on the couch watching television.

On a commercial break, Yunho gets up for more ice cream. "I don't have a comeback to prepare for," he informs Changmin before the other can protest.

Changmin figures he's right and follows him to the kitchen to find something better than a protein bar. He decides that a spot of strawberry ice cream won't kill him so he hunts for a clean bowl. 

"Changminnie look! Look at the moon!" Yunho exclaims. He rushes over to the sliding door leading to the back patio and slides it open, letting in an unwelcome gust of cold air. He stands outside staring up at the unusually large moon, still spooning ice cream into his mouth.

Changmin groans. He remembers the last time this happened: he'd found Yunho sitting outside on the patio of their hotel in Sapporo working his way through an ice cream bar in the dead of winter in nothing but a t-shirt and boxers. That time, Changmin had ignored him in favor of joining Kyuhyun on a Starcraft campaign, but the next day Yunho woke up with a runny nose, seal cough, and a slight fever. Changmin woke up with a hangover.

He sets the nearly empty ice cream tub back in the freezer and walks out onto the patio to pull Yunho back inside. 

The winter air bites and Changmin hates it, but Yunho's still staring up at the moon like a kid on Christmas. He's about to drag Yunho back in to the warmth of the apartment when Yunho breaks the silence and says, "You know, when I was younger, my friends and I wanted to be astronauts. We spent weeks designing our spaceships and were convinced we would be the first men on the moon." He chuckles. "We told our plans to our teacher who sadly informed us that there's already been a man on the moon."

"What happened after that?" Changmin asks, even though he already knows.

"I decided that I didn't like math enough to become an astrophysicist, so I decided to become a prosecutor instead," Yunho replies. "One of the guys actually did end up moving to America to work for NASA," Yunho smiles at the memory. "He told me if he ever goes into space that he'll bring one of our albums to play."

Not for the first time, Changmin wonders what things would be like if he'd never joined SM, never became a singer, never met Yunho...

They'd talked about it before one late night after one of their anniversary fan meets. Changmin had been about to launch into his parallel universe theory and what if this was just one timeline and were black holes really real? But Yunho had stopped him with a simple, "We would've met each other anyways. There's no way we wouldn't have been together."

And that had been that.

They come back inside to find that they're now in the jungle learning about exotic birds. Yunho sits right back down on the couch and only then does Changmin realize he'd worn his slippers outside. He groans but sits back down on the couch next to Yunho anyways. After all, he's always liked birds.

*

Changmin doesn't realize how much he misses this until Yunho's packing up his things to leave. He'd scattered his things all across the apartment per usual, but even Changmin has to admit that he misses the clutter. He misses listening to Yunho belt out the entire Lion King soundtrack in the shower while he stands in front of the mirror shaving. He does not, however, miss running out of hot water after Yunho's marathon shower concerts nor does he miss slipping on the puddles on the bathroom tile after Yunho's trekked around without toweling off. 

But what he misses most of all is coming back to someone who knows him almost as well as he knows himself. Someone who accepts his idiosyncrasies even if he doesn't understand them. Someone who makes really awful pasta. Someone who he doesn't have to explain himself to. Someone who feels like home whenever they're in Japan. Hell, someone who feels like home no matter where they are. Someone who has been by his side for the past thirteen years. Someone like Yunho.

"Give my love to your mom," Yunho says as they hug goodbye. 

"I will," Changmin replies. 

"And don't forget the gifts for Donghae and Siwon."

"You're the one who'd forget, not me," Changmin says. 

Yunho slings his bag over his shoulder and salutes before heading out.

Changmin doesn't watch him leave. He's never liked watching people leave. Instead, he goes back into the kitchen and opens the freezer for that almost empty tub of strawberry ice cream. He clicks on the television and figures that maybe National Geographic isn't that boring after all.


End file.
